Fiction for 5th Grade

Tuck EverlastingNatalie Babbitt

The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a 10-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from growing older.

The Dark Is RisingSusan Cooper

On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.

Bud, Not BuddyChristopher Paul Curtis

Bud, a boy living in Michigan during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father, the renowned bandleader H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the KeyJack Gantos

Joey Pigza makes bad choices. He learns the hard way that he shouldn't stick his finger in a pencil sharpener or swallow his house key. Joey knows if he keeps messing up, he could fall between the cracks. But he is determined not to let that happen.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's LibraryChris Grabenstein

Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new library designed by the famous Mr. Lemoncello, but finds out the next morning that he and his friends must solve puzzles to escape.

Out of the DustKaren Hesse

In a series of poems, 15-year-old Billie Jo tells the hardships of living on her family's farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Great Depression.

The Thing About LuckCynthia Kadohata

Just when 12-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother.

A Wrinkle in TimeMadeleine L'Engle

Meg Murry, her brother Charles, and their friend Calvin are guided by unearthly strangers on a journey through space and time to search for Meg's father, who vanished while experimenting with space travel.

Esperanza RisingPam Muñoz Ryan

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to harsh circumstances facing farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

HolesLouis Sachar

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley is sent to a correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Maniac MageeJerry Spinelli

He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend.

When You Reach MeRebecca Stead

As her mother prepares to be a contestant on a TV game show, a 12-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from a person who seems to defy the laws of time and space.